A wide variety of electrical connectors have been designed for terminating flat cables or circuits, such as flat flexible cables, flexible printed circuits or the like. A typical connector for flat circuits includes a dielectric housing molded of plastic material, for instance. The housing has an elongated opening or slot for receiving an end of the flat circuit which has generally parallel, laterally spaced conductors exposed across the end. A plurality of terminals are mounted in the housing and are spaced laterally along the slot, with contact portions of the terminals engageable with the laterally spaced conductors of the flat circuit. An actuator often is movably mounted on the housing for movement between a first position whereat the flat circuit is freely insertable into the slot and a second position whereat the actuator clamps the circuit in the housing and biases the circuit against the contact portions of the terminals. An example of these types of connectors is shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-87361.
FIG. 1 shows a sectional view through a flat circuit connector of the prior art. The connector includes a housing, generally designated 10, having an insertion opening 12 for allowing insertion of a flat circuit, such as a flexible printed circuit, into the connector. A plurality of conductive terminals, generally designated 14, are mounted on the housing and are arranged in a spaced array along the opening. Each terminal has a contact portion 14a extending into the opening for engaging a conductor on a face of the flat circuit. An actuator, generally designated 16, is pivotally mounted on the connector for rotation from an open position (shown in phantom) allowing the end of the flat circuit to be inserted into opening 12 and a closed position (shown in full lines) whereat a pressing portion 16a of the actuator biases the flat circuit against the contact portions 14a of terminals 14 and prevents removal of the circuit. Signal conductors on the surface of the flat circuit are pressed against the contact portions of the terminals to connect the flat circuit to a printed circuit board through tail portions 14b of the terminals.
With the prior art connector of FIG. 1, actuator 16 presses the flat circuit against contact portions 14a of the terminals only at a single location with respect to the insertion direction of the flat circuit. Therefore, if the flat circuit has ground conductors, exposed portions of the ground conductors and the exposed portions of the signal conductors are located at different positions with respect to the insertion direction of the flat circuit. As a result, actuators such as actuator 16, cannot press the ground conductors against any ground terminals. The present invention is directed to solving these problems in a flat circuit connector which includes both ground terminals and signal terminals.